Sage Gateshead is excited to welcome people back to its phenomenal Sage One venue on Thursday September 9, 2021 with a free event celebrating the 50th anniversary of John Lennon’s Imagine – one the most important and well-loved albums of the 20th century.
50 years to the day since the release of Imagine, Sage Gateshead will host a unique surround sound screening of John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s feature-length music film, Imagine. The conceptual movie was directed by John & Yoko to accompany their song “Imagine” as well as all the songs from the Imagine album and selections from Yoko Ono’s album, Fly. It has been lovingly restored and remastered from the original negative, with a brand new 2018 Dolby Atmos & Surround Sound audio mix, engineered and mixed from scratch from the original multitrack audio tapes by triple Grammy-award winner Paul Hicks and produced by Yoko Ono Lennon.
The big-screen, surround sound showing of the film will be watched by 600 people in Sage One, with all tickets available FREE as the Gateshead venue welcomes audiences back to shared live experiences.
Many thousands more will join the audience, watching and listening along at home, as Tim Burgess’ Tim’s Twitter Listening Party will host a simultaneous online watching party, enriching the experience with quotes and multimedia on Twitter led by Yoko Ono, the John Lennon Estate and many of the musicians, filmmakers and friends involved in making the album and film – a fitting sequel to the party held for the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Ultimate Collection box set launch earlier this year.
Yoko Ono Lennon says: The song “Imagine” was created with immense love and concern for the children of the world. The people who worked on the Imagine album and the film were Peace People and it was so enlightening and exciting all the way through to be one of them. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world.’
Tim Burgess says: “It’s such an honor to be asked by John Lennon’s Estate to take part in this unique watching / listening party. Sage Gateshead is one of my favourite venues and it’s brilliant that they are involved too. Looking forward to sharing the experience of watching this iconic film with so many people around the world.”
Wendy Smith at Sage Gateshead said: “Sage Gateshead is delighted to collaborate with John Lennon’s Estate to welcome everyone to a free screening of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ground-breaking film Imagine celebrating the album’s 50th Anniversary.”
“We’re thrilled that Tim’s Twitter Listening Party will be with us bringing people together online in a simultaneous watching/ listening party hosted by Tim Burgess and led by Yoko Ono, the John Lennon Estate and many of the musicians, filmmakers and friends involved in making the album and film. As we re-open our building we can’t wait to share this inspiring and influential music film at Sage Gateshead and with people around the world.”
After the Imagine film will be screened an additional fifteen minutes of rarely-seen in-studio films from the Imagine album recording sessions, also exclusively mixed in Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos.
All tickets are free of charge as Sage Gateshead welcomes everyone to the venue’s first programme of full capacity shows since March 2020. A maximum of 4 tickets are available per person. Visit the venue’s official website for further information.
Listen to the best of John Lennon on Apple Music and Spotify.